No. 8 Carolina Tops ECU, 6-2

Wednesday, March 22

Greenville, N.C.

6:30 PM

North Carolina

16-5

East Carolina

14-8

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
North Carolina	0	0	1	4	0	1	0	0	0	6	7	0
East Carolina	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	5	1

March 23, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

By: UNC Athletic Communications

GREENVILLE, N.C. --- Brandon Riley matched a career high with four RBIs and hit his first home run of the year as No. 8 North Carolina beat No. 19 East Carolina 6-2 Wednesday evening at Clark-LeClair Stadium. Rodney Hutchison Jr. and Josh Hiatt combined for six shutout innings of relief for the Tar Heels, who won their third straight in the series.

Riley doubled and scored in the third before his three-run homer put Carolina (16-5) ahead 5-1 in the fourth. After ECU starter Jacob Wolfe (2-2) was lifted with two outs, a throwing error on a Cody Roberts grounder kept the inning going. Riley then sent a 1-0 offering from reliever Chris Holba out to left to push the Tar Heel lead to four runs.

The sophomore from Burlington picked up his third hit of the night in the sixth when his infield single chased home Kyle Datres to make it 6-2.

UNC starter Tyler Baum allowed two runs in three-plus innings for his shortest outing of the year before giving way to Hutchison in the fourth. The Mason, Ohio, sophomore pitched 4.2 scoreless innings with a season-high five strikeouts to improve to 3-1 on the year.

With two on and two out in the eighth, Josh Hiatt took over for Hutchison and struck out Bryant Packard looking to end the ECU rally. Hiatt struck out all four batters he faced for his eighth save of the year.

Logan Warmoth had a single in the first inning to stretch his reached base streak to 36 games. He also swiped his 12th base of the year to establish a new career high.

Carolina returns to Boshamer Stadium Friday for the first of a three-game series with Miami. First pitch has been moved up to 4 p.m. from the original start time of 6:30.